“The Demolition of the Voting Rights Act”: Send Us Your Questions

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a decision in Callais vs. Louisiana that even further weakens the landmark Voting Rights Act—to a point where experts warn that the cornerstone of civil rights litigation since the 1960s could be rendered utterly unenforceable. 

Authored by Justice Samuel Alito, the 6-3 ruling changes the rules around Section 2, the key enforcement mechanism of the VRA that remains and has been invoked in countless lawsuits challenging racially discriminatory maps and voting restrictions. 

The majority did not outright strike down Section 2, though some elections law experts are already saying that Alito’s new framework for applying it could effectively make Section 2 complaints impossible to bring in court. The dissent, authored by Justice Elena Kagan, called the ruling the “latest chapter in the majority’s now-completed demolition of the Voting Rights Act,” and stated that it “renders Section 2 all but a dead letter.”  

The decision is expected to have wide-reaching repercussions for the drawing of political maps and for voting procedures. The court in today’s ruling struck down Louisiana’s congressional map, and observers expect the ruling to help the GOP target other majority-minority districts.

Political power will also be affected at the local level. Bolts has previewed in recent months the ways local voting rights advocates were bracing for the Callais decision in Mississippi and Tennessee, where courts had recently ordered new maps for county commission and state courts after Black residents challenged discriminatory voting maps. 

Still, major questions remain over how state and local authorities will react to the decision, and how the courts will address VRA complaints going forward.

We know that our readers have a lot of questions regarding what this decision means for voting rights, so we’re doing a rapid-fire edition of our Ask Bolts series to hear directly from you.

What questions do you have about the Callais decision and the fate of the Voting Rights Act? 

Let us know in the form below, and we will answer them in an upcoming Q&A, with help from election law and voting rights experts.

Share your questions in the form below by noon ET on Friday, May 1. And remember: all questions are welcome. Nothing is too in the weeds for Bolts!